Bouli Lanners awarded in Brussels

by Aurore Engelen

06/02/2012

This Saturday, February 4, Brussels held its second Magritte du cinéma, an awards ceremony for a Belgian francophone audience. At the André Delvaux Academy, members of the profession chose Bouli Lanners as new prince of Belgian cinema. He was awarded the Magritte for Best Director and Magritte for Best Film for Les Géants[+see also: film reviewtrailermaking offilm focusinterview: Bouli Lannersfilm profile], a film that also swept away the Awards for Best Supporting Actress, Best Picture, and Best Original Soundtrack. Lanners started his career as an actor, and today has over 40 films to his name. The Snuls, a television series for Canal+ Belgium, kickstarted his popularity in the early 1990s. From 1995 he moved behind the camera, but it was only in 2008 that he received praise from audiences and critics alike with his second feature film Eldorado that was selected for the Directors’ Fortnight in Cannes, making him an eminent figure of Belgian cinema. His latest Magritte awards further confirm his status.

But the real surprise of the evening were the losers. When nominees were announced, two Belgian films who had been to the 2011 Cannes Film Festival were expected to do well: Les Géants, of course, but also The Kid with a Bike[+see also: film reviewtrailerfilm focusinterview: Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardennefilm profile] that won the Jury Prize in Cannes. But, although young actor Thomas Doret received the Magritte statuette for Most Promising Actor, confirming yet again the Dardenne brothers' incredible talent in revealing promising young actors, their film won nothing at the Magritte Awards. Without questionning the awards received by Les Géants, one is however led to think that this year Belgian film professionals chose to renew an unofficial established hierarchy. The Dardenne brothers are omnipresent and almost atypical in the regularity and quality of their films, yet this week-end they seem to have to have proven the saying: No man is a prophet in his own country.

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